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Narrative: In this presentation, we provide an overview of the environmental issues facing the West and visualize some trends in land and water use.

Narrative: EcoWest is a website we created to aggregate, analyze, and share data on environmental trends in the West. I’d like to share some of our key findings and give you a taste of the free resources available on the site. In essence, we’re trying to tell the story of the region’s environment through the media of PowerPoint slides, graphics, maps, online dashboards, and other data visualizations.

Narrative: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation asked us to take stock of the State of the West. We went out and talked to other funders, NGOs, and experts to find out what kind of report they’d be interested in, but they told us what they really wanted were PowerPoint slides. And it turns out that graphics, maps, imagery, and data visualizations are the right tools for the job of tracking environmental trends.Source: NASAURL: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=79787Notes:NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided courtesy of Chris Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center). Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, NOAA, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.This image of North and South America at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. The new data was mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet.The nighttime view was made possible by the new satellite’s “day-night band” of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. VIIRS detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires, and reflected moonlight. In this case, auroras, fires, and other stray light have been removed to emphasize the city lights.“Artificial lighting is a excellent remote sensing observable and proxy for human activity,” says Chris Elvidge, who leads the Earth Observation Group at NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center. Social scientists and demographers have used night lights to model the spatial distribution of economic activity, of constructed surfaces, and of populations. Planners and environmental groups have used maps of lights to select sites for astronomical observatories and to monitor human development around parks and wildlife refuges. Electric power companies, emergency managers, and news media turn to night lights to observe blackouts.Named for satellite meteorology pioneer Verner Suomi, NPP flies over any given point on Earth&apos;s surface twice each day at roughly 1:30 a.m. and p.m. The polar-orbiting satellite flies 824 kilometers (512 miles) above the surface, sending its data once per orbit to a ground station in Svalbard, Norway, and continuously to local direct broadcast users distributed around the world. The mission is managed by NASA with operational support from NOAA and its Joint Polar Satellite System, which manages the satellite&apos;s ground system.Learn more about the VIIRS day-night band and nighttime imaging of Earth in our new feature story: Out of the Blue and Into the Black.

Narrative: First, I want to outline five ways in which this regions stand out.I’ll then talk about some the environmental challenges facing the regionThe expanding human footprint due to growth and agricultureThe water crisis confronting this relatively dry region, especially in light of climate change

Narrative: So what is this region known as the West?

Narrative: One of my first challenges in this project was orienting myself, defining the West, and bounding the problem into something manageable. Source: NASA/JPL/SSIURL: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/earth/the-day-the-earth-smiled.htmlNotes:In this rare image taken on July 19, 2013, the wide-angle camera on NASA&apos;s Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn&apos;s rings and our planet Earth and its Moon in the same frame. This is only one footprint in a mosaic of 33 footprints covering the entire Saturn ring system (including Saturn itself). At each footprint, images were taken in different spectral filters for a total of 323 images: some were taken for scientific purposes and some to produce a natural color mosaic. This is the only wide-angle footprint that has the Earth-Moon system in it.The dark side of Saturn, its bright limb, the main rings, the F ring, and the G and E rings are clearly seen; the limb of Saturn and the F ring are overexposed. The &quot;breaks&quot; in the brightness of Saturn&apos;s limb are due to the shadows of the rings on the globe of Saturn, preventing sunlight from shining through the atmosphere in those regions. The E and G rings have been brightened for better visibility.Earth, which is 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away in this image, appears as a blue dot at center right; the moon can be seen as a fainter protrusion off its right side.

Narrative: The “West” is as much a cultural invention as a geographical construct, so it’s a difficult place to define. Source: NASAURL: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=57723Notes: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto Stöckli (land surface, shallow water, clouds). Enhancements by Robert Simmon (ocean color, compositing, 3D globes, animation). Data and technical support: MODIS Land Group; MODIS Science Data Support Team; MODIS Atmosphere Group; MODIS Ocean Group Additional data: USGS EROS Data Center (topography); USGS Terrestrial Remote Sensing Flagstaff Field Center (Antarctica); Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (city lights).This spectacular “blue marble” image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. These images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public.Much of the information contained in this image came from a single remote-sensing device-NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS. Flying over 700 km above the Earth onboard the Terra satellite, MODIS provides an integrated tool for observing a variety of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric features of the Earth. The land and coastal ocean portions of these images are based on surface observations collected from June through September 2001 and combined, or composited, every eight days to compensate for clouds that might block the sensor’s view of the surface on any single day. Two different types of ocean data were used in these images: shallow water true color data, and global ocean color (or chlorophyll) data. Topographic shading is based on the GTOPO 30 elevation dataset compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey’s EROS Data Center. MODIS observations of polar sea ice were combined with observations of Antarctica made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s AVHRR sensor—the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. The cloud image is a composite of two days of imagery collected in visible light wavelengths and a third day of thermal infra-red imagery over the poles. Global city lights, derived from 9 months of observations from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, are superimposed on a darkened land surface map.

Narrative: Ranging from the driest of deserts to the wettest of rainforests, the lands of Western North America include an incredible diversity of ecosystems and people.Source: NASAURL: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=57723Notes: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto Stöckli (land surface, shallow water, clouds). Enhancements by Robert Simmon (ocean color, compositing, 3D globes, animation). Data and technical support: MODIS Land Group; MODIS Science Data Support Team; MODIS Atmosphere Group; MODIS Ocean Group Additional data: USGS EROS Data Center (topography); USGS Terrestrial Remote Sensing Flagstaff Field Center (Antarctica); Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (city lights).This spectacular “blue marble” image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. These images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public.Much of the information contained in this image came from a single remote-sensing device-NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS. Flying over 700 km above the Earth onboard the Terra satellite, MODIS provides an integrated tool for observing a variety of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric features of the Earth. The land and coastal ocean portions of these images are based on surface observations collected from June through September 2001 and combined, or composited, every eight days to compensate for clouds that might block the sensor’s view of the surface on any single day. Two different types of ocean data were used in these images: shallow water true color data, and global ocean color (or chlorophyll) data. Topographic shading is based on the GTOPO 30 elevation dataset compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey’s EROS Data Center. MODIS observations of polar sea ice were combined with observations of Antarctica made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s AVHRR sensor—the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. The cloud image is a composite of two days of imagery collected in visible light wavelengths and a third day of thermal infra-red imagery over the poles. Global city lights, derived from 9 months of observations from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, are superimposed on a darkened land surface map.

Narrative: Ultimately, we decided to focus our efforts on the 11 Western states, shown here. Let me explain five ways I think this region stands out.

Narrative: First, much of the West is dominated by federal land. This pattern of land ownership explains why so much of the West has remained relatively wild. The Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service are the biggest landowners, but the West is also home to considerable tracts of tribal and state property. Source: Protected Area Database, Conservation Biology InstituteURL: http://databasin.org/protected-center/features/PAD-US-CBINotes:

Narrative: All that public land is a major reason why so much of the West is unpopulated, as you can see in this satellite view of the nation at night. Source: NASAURL: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=55167Notes:Data courtesy Marc Imhoff of NASA GSFC and Christopher Elvidge of NOAA NGDC. Image by Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC.This image of Earth’s city lights was created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). Originally designed to view clouds by moonlight, the OLS is also used to map the locations of permanent lights on the Earth’s surface.The brightest areas of the Earth are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated. (Compare western Europe with China and India.) Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. Even without the underlying map, the outlines of many continents would still be visible. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centers. In Russia, the Trans-Siberian railroad is a thin line stretching from Moscow through the center of Asia to Vladivostok. The Nile River, from the Aswan Dam to the Mediterranean Sea, is another bright thread through an otherwise dark region.Even more than 100 years after the invention of the electric light, some regions remain thinly populated and unlit. Antarctica is entirely dark. The interior jungles of Africa and South America are mostly dark, but lights are beginning to appear there. Deserts in Africa, Arabia, Australia, Mongolia, and the United States are poorly lit as well (except along the coast), along with the boreal forests of Canada and Russia, and the great mountains of the Himalaya.The Earth Observatory article Bright Lights, Big City describes how NASA scientists use city light data to map urbanization

Narrative: The second factor is aridity: as you move west across the United States, the climate generally gets drier.West of the 100th Meridian, irrigation is usually required to support agriculture. Every Western state includes some very arid terrain that is far drier than anything back East, even Washington and Oregon, where the Cascade Mountains cast a stark rain shadowSource: Climate Wizard URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/ http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0008320Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320

Narrative:You can also see that aridity in this view from NASA of the lushness of the Earth’s vegetation. Source: NASAURL: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/green.php

Narrative: A third defining featureof the West is its enormous variation in elevation, temperature, precipitation—and therefore ecosystems—that are found in a small area. The scorching desert of Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level and the lowest point on the continent, is only 85 miles away from the snow-capped peak of Mount Whitney, 14,505 feet above sea level and the tallest point in the contiguous 48 states.Source: Climate Wizard URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/ http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0008320Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320

Narrative: The fourth factor is biological diversity. The broad spectrum of elevations, temperatures, and precipitation patterns explains why the West is home to such a varied set of ecosystems and species.As an example, this figure shows a Southern Arizona mountain is a layer cake of life zones, ranging from the Sonoran Desert at the bottom to a spruce-fir forest at the top. Source: US Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3, based on Brown, D. E., ed. Biotic Communities of the American Southwest United States and Mexico. Salt Lake City: Univ. of Utah Press, 1994.URL: http://www.sap43.ucar.edu/ http://www.sap43.ucar.edu/images/biodiversity/

Narrative: Finally, the fifth factor is population growth. The West’s population has been booming for decades. By 2030, the region is expected to be home to a quarter of all Americans, up from9 percent in 1930. To be sure, other parts of the United States, such as the South, are also growing. But the steady influx of new residents in the West—and their growing demands on natural resources—is the fundamental challenge facing the region and a recurring theme in its environmental history. Source: US Census BureauURL: http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/stproj.htmlNotes: Released in 2005, based on 2000 data. No update planned for 2010 census

Narrative: Tens of millions of people have poured into the West, especially its more arid regions, and that has obviously had a big impact on the land, so let’s talk about the human footprint.

Narrative: Earlier, I mentioned that the federal government owns a large chunk of the West. This map shows what percent of each state is federal land. Nevada and Alaska top the list and all Western states have at least 30 percent of their land under federal control. Source: U.S. General Services Administration, Federal Real Property Profile 2004URL: http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/ogp/Annual_Report__FY2004_Final_R2M-n11_0Z5RDZ-i34K-pR.pdfNotes: Excludes trust properties. Adapted from map in Kennedy, Donald, “Can the West Lead Us to a Better Place?,” Stanford Magazine, May/June 2008. http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2008/mayjun/features/west.html

Narrative: This presents something of a paradox: because there’s so much public property in the West, many landscapes are at least nominally protected by the government. This map shows the percent of each ecoregion that is protected and the West does quite well on this measure, even on a global scale. But government ownership does not equal immunity from human influence. Mining, logging, grazing, and energy development take place on many public lands in the West.Source: Hoekstra et al. The Atlas Of Global Conservation: Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities to Make a Difference. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2010URL: http://www.nature.org/ourscience/sciencefeatures/conservation-atlas.xml http://app.databasin.org/app/pages/datasetPage.jsp?id=09fe3f2e8cf1402281339f0e17924e9aNotes: We derived estimates of protected area coverage from the World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA, UNEP/IUCN 2007) with supplements for the United States (CBI 2006) and Australia (CAPAD 2006). The WDPA is the most comprehensive global catalog of protected areas and includes data about their sizes, locations, and IUCN classifications of management designation. The WDPA was assembled by a broad alliance of organizations that aimed to maintain a freely available, accurate, and current database that is accepted as a global standard by all stakeholders.The distribution of all protected areas was mapped in a Geographic Information System and then summarized to calculate the total area of all protected areas in each ecoregion and biome, respectively. We included all categories of protected areas in our estimates, except those that lacked location data or that had nonpermanent status. Protected areas with only point location and area data were mapped as circles with appropriate radii. Portions of any protected areas that extended into the marine environment were clipped out. Overlapping protected areas were combined to avoid double-counting errors. The time series of cumulative protected area coverage was derived from the WDPA based on the reported year of designation. The number and total area of different categories of protected areas were calculated based on the IUCN classification assigned to each protected area. These categories indicate the intended management objectives for each protected area, but they do not necessarily predict whether that management is occurring or is effective. Protected areas for which no IUCN category was assigned were not included in these tallies. A note about Antarctica designation of “not applicable”: Antarctica is often regarded as a special case; not owned by a nation, its management falls under the jurisdiction of the twenty-seven nations that are signatories to the Antarctica Treaty System. There are provisions for designation of protected areas under this system, although only small areas have so far been established. At the same time, the general environmental regulations pertaining to the continent and, to some degree, to the surrounding waters are regarded by many as equivalent to, or perhaps stricter than, those applied to many protected areas elsewhere in the world.Data derived from:Collaborative Australian Protected Area Database (CAPAD). 2006. Available on request from the Australian Government, Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts at www.deh.gov.au/parks/nrs/capad. Digital media.Conservation Biology Institute (CBI). 2006. Protected Areas Database (PAD), version 4. Conservation Biology Institute, Corvallis, Oregon, USA. Available at www.consbio.org/cbi/projects/PAD. Digital media.UN Environment Programme (UNEP)/International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 2007. Protected areas extracted from the 2007 World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). The WDPA is a joint product of UNEP and the IUCN, prepared by UNEP-WCMC and the IUCN WCPA working with Governments, the Secretariats of MEAs, and collaborating NGOs. For further information, contact protectedareas@unep-wcmc.org or go to www.WDPA.org.

Narrative: Some traditional extractive industries, such as public lands logging, are in decline. This graphic shows how much timber was sold and harvested on national forests, most of which are in the West. There was a big run-up in the post-war era, but then a dramatic decline starting in the late 1980s as restrictions related to the spotted owl and other environmental laws took effect and foreign competition hurt the industry. Source:US Forest ServiceURL:http://www.fs.fed.us/forestmanagement/reports/sold-harvest/documents/1905-2008_Natl_Sold_Harvest_Summary.pdf

Narrative: At the same time, federal lands have become increasingly important to the nation’s energy supply. This graphic shows that federal lands accounted for about a third of the national total for natural gas and all fossil fuels by 2009. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Annual Energy ReviewURL: http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/index.cfm#summary

Narrative: Even though much of the West’s land is protected in some manner, the imprint of humanity on the region has been deep and indelible. This map shows the results of an analysis of the human footprint in the West. White indicates areas with the least human impact, followed by green for places where the footprint is minimal, while orange and red areas are where people have done the most to transform native ecosystems. Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdfNotes: Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion and development of rural areas, influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. In addition, western ecosystems are also affected by roads, powerlines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations. The cumulative impacts of human presence and actions on a landscape are called the “human footprint.” These impacts may affect plants and wildlife by increasing the number of synanthropic (species that benefit from human activities) bird and mammal predators and facilitating their movements through the landscape or by creating unsuitable habitats. These actions can impact plants and wildlife to such an extent that the persistence of populations or entire species is questionable. The human footprint map focuses on shrubland ecosystems and combines models of habitat use by synanthropic predators (“top-down” effects) and the risk of invasive plant presence (“bottom-up” effects) to estimate the total influence of human activities. Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion, construction of roads, power lines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. We developed the map of the human footprint for the western United States from an analysis of 14 landscape structure and anthropogenic features: human habitation, interstate highways, federal and state highways, secondary roads, railroads, irrigation canals, power lines, linear feature densities, agricultural land, campgrounds, highway rest stops, land fills, oil and gas development, and human induced fires. We used these input layers to develop seven models to estimate the total influence of the human footprint. These models either explored how anthropogenic features influence wildlife populations via changes in habitat (road-induced dispersal of invasive plants, oil and gas developments, human induced fires, and anthropogenic habitat fragmentation) or predators densities (spatial distribution of domestic and synanthropic avian predators). The human footprint map is a composite of these seven models. The final map consists of a 180 meter resolution raster data set with 10 human footprint classes. Modeling the human footprint across large landscapes also allows researchers to generate hypotheses about ecosystem change and to conduct studies in regions differing in potential impact. Because funding for restoration and conservation projects is limited, and because there is little room for errors in the management of species of concern, land managers are able to maximize restoration and conservation efforts in areas minimally influenced by the human footprint. As such, the human footprint model is an important first step toward understanding the synergistic effects acting on shrublands in the western United States.

Narrative: Let’s take a closer look at some of the factors used to calculate the human footprint in the West. Obviously population density is a big part of this. Planners now talk about the age of megacities in the West and you can see them on this map. The vast majority of the region’s population lives in and around a dozen or so cities: San Diego, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Portland, and Seattle on the Pacific Coast have some of the biggest cities, but inland there’s Las Vegas, the Phoenix-Tucson corridor, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, Salt Lake City and Utah’s Wasatch Front, and the string of cities along the Colorado Front Range from Fort Collins to Boulder to Denver to Colorado Springs.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdf

Narrative: But it’s actually farming that has the greatest imprint on the West in terms of acres affected. Vast areas without many people have been transformed by agriculture, usually with the aid of irrigation.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdf

Narrative: Even areas that aren’t cities, suburbs, or farms have been impacted by the far-reaching network of highways and roads that crisscross the West. It’s worth noting that this map just shows major highways—the vast network or secondary and dirt roads also contributes to habitat fragmentation. Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdf

Narrative: The authors of this analysis also looked at other networks, such as rail lines, which may be fenced and create obstacles for wildlife.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdf

Narrative: And even things like landfills, which can attract ravens, rats, and other species that imperil native wildlife.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdf

Narrative: Another human impact are wildfires caused by people. There have been thousands and thousands of these fires, some of which have grown to hundreds of thousands of acres.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdfNotes: This data was produced to examine the extent and location of human induced fires throughout the western United States. The National Fire Occurrence Database (1986-1996) and additional government agency fire occurrence databases were queried for human induced fires between 1986 and 2001. Purpose: Provide locations of human induced fires from 1986 to 2001 in the western United States.

Narrative: Even very remote places may bear the marks of human activity. Oil and gas drilling, plus the associated network of roads, pipelines, and other infrastructure, have made a significant impact on very unpopulated areas, but this map doesn’t account for more recent drilling in other parts of the West. Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdfNotes: Development of oil and gas wells leads to the destruction and fragmentation of natural habitat. Oil and gas wells also increase noise levels which has been shown to be detrimental to some wildlife species. Therefore, the density of oil and gas wells in the western United States was modeled based on data obtained from the National Oil and Gas Assessment. Purpose: Depict the density of oil and gas wells in the western United States. Time_Period_of_Content:

Narrative: One final category of human-caused stressors to discuss: invasive species. This map shows the risk of invasion by exotic plants and is based on factors such as roads, which are conducive to spreading these alien invaders.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdfNotes: This model was constructed to model the risk of invasion by exotic plant species. Roads may directly influence exotic plant dispersal via disturbance during road construction or via alterations in soil regimes. For example, in Californian serpentine soil ecosystems exotic plant species can be found up to 1km from the nearest road , and Russian thistle (Salsola kali), an exotic forb growing along roads, is wind-dispersed over distances greater than 4km. Roads may also indirectly facilitate the dispersal of exotic grasses, such as crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum), via human seeding along road verges or in burned areas near roads as a management strategy to curb the establishment of less desirable exotic grass species. The inputs for this model are road type , distance from road , forest - non-forest vegetation , and proximity to rural-urban and agricultural areas. Three road-based models were built based on the classification of road type and four distance risk classes. Interstates, federal and state highways received a higher risk than secondary roads because secondary roads with shallow road verges are poorer exotic plant dispersers compared to the other two road types . Because exotic plant invasion in forest areas is restricted to roads and riparian corridors , we included only the highest risk class within forested areas. Last, because urbanized and agricultural areas act as exotic plant sources, we classified the populated areas and agricultural lands as high risk. The three road models and the populated areas and agricultural land models were merged by selecting the maximum value at each pixel location from the five input grids using the MAX command in ARC/INFO.

Narrative: This analysis also looked at non-native animals, such as feral cats and dogs.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdfNotes: This model is based on how house cats utilize wildlands near human habituation. These predators can have detrimental effects on wildlife populations (Alterio et al. 1998). We based our model on the data collected by Odell and Knight (2001) that investigated habitat utilization of these predators with regard to distance from housing and on the probability for a homeowner to possess a house cat. We buffered the populated areas distance layer in ARC/INFO using a probability function [P = 0.216 - 0.96 * Distance (km)] where any cell with distance less than 0.18km received a probability between 0.216 to 0. All distances greater than or equal to 0.18km from populated areas were assigned a probability of 0. The resulting dataset was then resampled to 180m using the bilinear interpolation option. Purpose: Model the distribution of house cats throughout the western United States.

Narrative: Add it all up, and you’ve got this portrait of the human footprint in the American West. As with so many other dimensions—elevation, rainfall, temperature—the West is a study in contrasts and diversity.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdfNotes: Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion and development of rural areas, influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. In addition, western ecosystems are also affected by roads, powerlines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations. The cumulative impacts of human presence and actions on a landscape are called the “human footprint.” These impacts may affect plants and wildlife by increasing the number of synanthropic (species that benefit from human activities) bird and mammal predators and facilitating their movements through the landscape or by creating unsuitable habitats. These actions can impact plants and wildlife to such an extent that the persistence of populations or entire species is questionable. The human footprint map focuses on shrubland ecosystems and combines models of habitat use by synanthropic predators (“top-down” effects) and the risk of invasive plant presence (“bottom-up” effects) to estimate the total influence of human activities. Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion, construction of roads, power lines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. We developed the map of the human footprint for the western United States from an analysis of 14 landscape structure and anthropogenic features: human habitation, interstate highways, federal and state highways, secondary roads, railroads, irrigation canals, power lines, linear feature densities, agricultural land, campgrounds, highway rest stops, land fills, oil and gas development, and human induced fires. We used these input layers to develop seven models to estimate the total influence of the human footprint. These models either explored how anthropogenic features influence wildlife populations via changes in habitat (road-induced dispersal of invasive plants, oil and gas developments, human induced fires, and anthropogenic habitat fragmentation) or predators densities (spatial distribution of domestic and synanthropic avian predators). The human footprint map is a composite of these seven models. The final map consists of a 180 meter resolution raster data set with 10 human footprint classes. Modeling the human footprint across large landscapes also allows researchers to generate hypotheses about ecosystem change and to conduct studies in regions differing in potential impact. Because funding for restoration and conservation projects is limited, and because there is little room for errors in the management of species of concern, land managers are able to maximize restoration and conservation efforts in areas minimally influenced by the human footprint. As such, the human footprint model is an important first step toward understanding the synergistic effects acting on shrublands in the western United States.

Narrative: If you love spending time in the wilderness, the white and deep green pixels offer a sort of bucket list for backcountry trips. I’ve annotated some in this map.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdfNotes: Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion and development of rural areas, influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. In addition, western ecosystems are also affected by roads, powerlines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations. The cumulative impacts of human presence and actions on a landscape are called the “human footprint.” These impacts may affect plants and wildlife by increasing the number of synanthropic (species that benefit from human activities) bird and mammal predators and facilitating their movements through the landscape or by creating unsuitable habitats. These actions can impact plants and wildlife to such an extent that the persistence of populations or entire species is questionable. The human footprint map focuses on shrubland ecosystems and combines models of habitat use by synanthropic predators (“top-down” effects) and the risk of invasive plant presence (“bottom-up” effects) to estimate the total influence of human activities. Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion, construction of roads, power lines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. We developed the map of the human footprint for the western United States from an analysis of 14 landscape structure and anthropogenic features: human habitation, interstate highways, federal and state highways, secondary roads, railroads, irrigation canals, power lines, linear feature densities, agricultural land, campgrounds, highway rest stops, land fills, oil and gas development, and human induced fires. We used these input layers to develop seven models to estimate the total influence of the human footprint. These models either explored how anthropogenic features influence wildlife populations via changes in habitat (road-induced dispersal of invasive plants, oil and gas developments, human induced fires, and anthropogenic habitat fragmentation) or predators densities (spatial distribution of domestic and synanthropic avian predators). The human footprint map is a composite of these seven models. The final map consists of a 180 meter resolution raster data set with 10 human footprint classes. Modeling the human footprint across large landscapes also allows researchers to generate hypotheses about ecosystem change and to conduct studies in regions differing in potential impact. Because funding for restoration and conservation projects is limited, and because there is little room for errors in the management of species of concern, land managers are able to maximize restoration and conservation efforts in areas minimally influenced by the human footprint. As such, the human footprint model is an important first step toward understanding the synergistic effects acting on shrublands in the western United States.

Narrative: We have close-up images of all the Western states on EcoWest. I live here in Denver but I’m constantly drawn West to the mountains.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdfNotes: Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion and development of rural areas, influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. In addition, western ecosystems are also affected by roads, powerlines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations. The cumulative impacts of human presence and actions on a landscape are called the “human footprint.” These impacts may affect plants and wildlife by increasing the number of synanthropic (species that benefit from human activities) bird and mammal predators and facilitating their movements through the landscape or by creating unsuitable habitats. These actions can impact plants and wildlife to such an extent that the persistence of populations or entire species is questionable. The human footprint map focuses on shrubland ecosystems and combines models of habitat use by synanthropic predators (“top-down” effects) and the risk of invasive plant presence (“bottom-up” effects) to estimate the total influence of human activities. Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion, construction of roads, power lines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. We developed the map of the human footprint for the western United States from an analysis of 14 landscape structure and anthropogenic features: human habitation, interstate highways, federal and state highways, secondary roads, railroads, irrigation canals, power lines, linear feature densities, agricultural land, campgrounds, highway rest stops, land fills, oil and gas development, and human induced fires. We used these input layers to develop seven models to estimate the total influence of the human footprint. These models either explored how anthropogenic features influence wildlife populations via changes in habitat (road-induced dispersal of invasive plants, oil and gas developments, human induced fires, and anthropogenic habitat fragmentation) or predators densities (spatial distribution of domestic and synanthropic avian predators). The human footprint map is a composite of these seven models. The final map consists of a 180 meter resolution raster data set with 10 human footprint classes. Modeling the human footprint across large landscapes also allows researchers to generate hypotheses about ecosystem change and to conduct studies in regions differing in potential impact. Because funding for restoration and conservation projects is limited, and because there is little room for errors in the management of species of concern, land managers are able to maximize restoration and conservation efforts in areas minimally influenced by the human footprint. As such, the human footprint model is an important first step toward understanding the synergistic effects acting on shrublands in the western United States.

Narrative: Here’s California. That white area to the right is whereYosemite National Park is located.Source: Matthias Leu, Steven E. Hanser, and Steven T. Knick. The Human Footprint In The West: A Large-scale Analysis Of Anthropogenic Impacts. Ecological Applications, 18(5), 2008, pp. 1119–1139URL: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/HumanFootprint.aspx http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/fs/fs-127-03.pdfNotes: Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion and development of rural areas, influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. In addition, western ecosystems are also affected by roads, powerlines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations. The cumulative impacts of human presence and actions on a landscape are called the “human footprint.” These impacts may affect plants and wildlife by increasing the number of synanthropic (species that benefit from human activities) bird and mammal predators and facilitating their movements through the landscape or by creating unsuitable habitats. These actions can impact plants and wildlife to such an extent that the persistence of populations or entire species is questionable. The human footprint map focuses on shrubland ecosystems and combines models of habitat use by synanthropic predators (“top-down” effects) and the risk of invasive plant presence (“bottom-up” effects) to estimate the total influence of human activities. Humans have dramatically altered wildlands in the western United States over the past 100 years by using these lands and the resources they provide. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape, such as urban expansion, construction of roads, power lines, and other networks and land uses necessary to maintain human populations influence the number and kinds of plants and wildlife that remain. We developed the map of the human footprint for the western United States from an analysis of 14 landscape structure and anthropogenic features: human habitation, interstate highways, federal and state highways, secondary roads, railroads, irrigation canals, power lines, linear feature densities, agricultural land, campgrounds, highway rest stops, land fills, oil and gas development, and human induced fires. We used these input layers to develop seven models to estimate the total influence of the human footprint. These models either explored how anthropogenic features influence wildlife populations via changes in habitat (road-induced dispersal of invasive plants, oil and gas developments, human induced fires, and anthropogenic habitat fragmentation) or predators densities (spatial distribution of domestic and synanthropic avian predators). The human footprint map is a composite of these seven models. The final map consists of a 180 meter resolution raster data set with 10 human footprint classes. Modeling the human footprint across large landscapes also allows researchers to generate hypotheses about ecosystem change and to conduct studies in regions differing in potential impact. Because funding for restoration and conservation projects is limited, and because there is little room for errors in the management of species of concern, land managers are able to maximize restoration and conservation efforts in areas minimally influenced by the human footprint. As such, the human footprint model is an important first step toward understanding the synergistic effects acting on shrublands in the western United States.

Narrative: Now let’s move on to water, the lifeblood of the American West.

Narrative: I mentioned that agriculture has the biggest footprint in the region. Well, it’s also the biggest water user, by far.Source: US Geological Survey Water Use in the US 2005URL: http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/

Narrative: If you’re interested in water issues, I highly recommend WRI’s Aqueduct tool, which compares overall water risk worldwide. You can see there’s plenty of orange and red, indicting high water risk, in the American West, and around the world.Source: World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct toolURL: http://aqueduct.wri.org/

Narrative: This data from WRI shows baseline water stress in the United States. This is a measure of water use compared to the renewable supply. Red, for example, indicates that more than 80 percent of available freshwater is used and supply disruptions are likely to occur due to natural phenomena, competition among users, political pressure, or regulatory measures. You can see that the West is home to most of the highest stress areas.Source: World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct toolURL: http://aqueduct.wri.org/

Narrative: The WRI Aqueduct tool also allows you to project future water stress based on a variety of greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Under the pessimistic A2 scenario, which involves much warmer temperatures and, in many parts of the West, a drier climate, you can see that the stress levels are much higher. There’s no place in the continental United States that has less water stress in 2095.Source: World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct toolURL: http://aqueduct.wri.org/

Narrative: The Colorado River is a prime example of a basin that is likely to be severely impacted by drought.

Narrative: More than 30 million people in the Southwest now depend on this river, which supplies Southern California, Las Vegas, Arizona, the Colorado Front Range, and other population centers.

Narrative: One metric we’re keeping a close eye on is the level of Lake Powell. I’ve also marked some key benchmarks: the minimum amount needed to generate hydropower, and dead pool, when the reservoir is effectively empty.Source: US Bureau of ReclamationURL: http://www.usbr.gov/uc/crsp/GetSiteInfo http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/programs/strategies/presentations/Nov2005.pdfNotes:Elevation 3,700 feet msl corresponds to the top of the spillway radial gates. During floods, the elevation of Lake Powell can go above 3,700 feet msl by raising the radial spillway gates, resulting in spillway releases. In 1983, Lake Powell reached a high elevation of 3,708.34 feet msl.

Narrative: Sometimes all it takes is a really dry year to cause reservoir levels to plummet. Here’s Lake Powell in June 2002.Source: US Climate Change Science Program, Photos by John DohrenwendURL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdfNotes:

Narrative: Here it is in December 2003.Source: US Climate Change Science Program, Photos by John DohrenwendURL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdfNotes:

Narrative: Here’s a view from space of another part of the reservoir in 2012.Source: NASAURL: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/lake_powell.phpNotes:: The peak inflow to Lake Powell occurs in mid- to late spring as the winter snow in the Rocky Mountains melts. Significant amounts of snowfall over the winter of 2010–2011 meant more water for Lake Powell, and this effect lasted into the spring of 2012, when inflow levels were even higher than they had been the previous spring. Regional snowfall in the spring of 2012, on the other hand, was abnormally low, and inflow to Lake Powell did not begin to increase in May 2012 as it had in the previous four years

Narrative: And one year laterSource: NASAURL: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/lake_powell.phpNotes:

Narrative: The federal government recently released a major study of the Colorado and the news was not good. This graphic shows that water use, in red, is expected to rise in the years ahead, and outstrip the available supply, which was overestimated to begin with when the seven basin states divided the river’s flow nearly a century ago. Climate change is expected to decrease the flow of the Colorado in the decades ahead.Source: Colorado River Basin Water Supply &amp; Demand StudyURL: http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/programs/crbstudy.htmlNotes: Historical supply and use and projected future Colorado River Basin Water Supply and DemandFootnote: Water use and demand include Mexico’s allotment and losses such as those due to reservoir evaporation, native vegetation, and operational inefficiencies.

Narrative: I wanted to share one more visualization, this one an animation of the planet, over a 25-hour period, as the Galileo spacecraft departed in 1990 for Jupiter. Believe me, this perspective of leaving Earth behind sounds mighty appealing to me on many days, but this clip also reminds me of how fragile and precious life on Earth is in the cosmic void. I wonder how long that ice cap around the South Pole is going to last. It’s my hope that images and visualization like this can educate and inspire people in the American West and beyond to tackle our many environmental challenges. Source: NASA/JPL/Doug EllisonURL: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/earth/all_gal_e1_1hr.htmlNotes: As Galileo receded from its first flyby of Earth on December 11 and 12, 1990, it took images of Earth in six different filters almost every minute over a 25-hour period. The animation here includes images taken once an hour, representing about a tenth of the full number of frames.

Narrative: In closing, I’d like to urge you to visit EcoWest.org, subscribe to our RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and contact me with any questions or feedback. I hope you’ll join us on the journey ahead.

10.
1) Much of the West is dominated by federal land
Federal
Tribal
State
Local/regional
Private conservation
Joint/unknown
Urbanized areas
Source: Protected Area Database, Conservation Biology Institute
10

16.
5) Growing share of U.S. population lives in West
90
25%
80
20%
70
60
15%
50
Millions
40
10%
30
Population of 11
Western states
20
% of U.S.
population in 11
Western states
10
0
5%
0%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
16

20.
Some traditional extractive industries in decline
Logging in national forests a shadow of its former self
16
Timber produced by U.S. national forests
Northern spotted owl
ESA listing
14
12
10
Billions
of
board- 8
feet
Sold
Harvested
6
4
2
0
Source: U.S. Forest Service
20

21.
Federal lands important for fossil fuel production
Private, tribal, and state land also home to energy development
45
40
35
30
25
Percent
20
15
% of US total for natural gas
10
% of US total for fossil fuels
5
0
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration
21